President Obama rocked some (perhaps questionably-fitting) Levi’s when he threw out the first pitch at the MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday, and we’re still convinced that Levi’s make the best cutoffs.

And now the jeans brand is encouraging Americans to embrace their heritage and show some American pride as a part of their Go Forth Campaign.

They are asking you to submit videos, photos, text messages, or audio files on any subject that reflects today’s new pioneering America spirit in some way.

Or, you can complete one of the tasks posted on the website, and show how you think that task reflects America.

About one minute into my trip to the new Paige Denim store in the West Village yesterday, I was a little miffed. Not because some guy muttered something about “artfully destroyed jeans” to me as I walked in, but because I went there specifically for the Petites Line, which takes up about 1/16 of the store.

Which brings me to my greater question: Why exactly are jeans so incredibly long? My “petite” jeans I bought yesterday came with a tag that reads, “This collection offers perfect proportions for the petite. Rather than simply cropping the length, this garment has been rescaled and tailored to accomodate [sic] the woman who is 5’4” and under.” Which is interesting, seeing as how the average height for the female American woman is 5’4” (and that statistic doesn’t take into account all the still-growing teenage girls who probably buy more jeans than all the rest of us combined).

It’s not that I’m naive about these things. I stare at and mull over fashion for a living, so I am fully aware that most designs are intended for people that don’t even exist. But you’d think that such an ordinary item wouldn’t be subject to the idea that everybody’s 5’10 and 85 pounds (and I won’t even bother to present the argument that making people-size jeans would help the cost since less fabric should equal less money - my petites are always the same price as their foot-longer counterparts).

So does anyone have the missing piece of information to this mystery? Because it would really help my weekend.

What do you do when everybody’s shopping money is either disappearing or being stored away, but you really need to sell the one thing your company’s known for?

Collaborate with a big name of course. That’s exactly what J Brand is doing for Fall, since they just signed Hussein Chalayan for a capsule collection to hit stores at summer’s end.

J Brand, whose jeans hover in the almost-$200 category and are sold at department stores like Neiman Marcus, is probably hoping a London-based, avant-garde designer can give them the touch of mystique one probably needs to push overpriced denim these days.

But we’re just wondering which way this one’ll go: The normal J Brand jeans but with a few extra flourishes for an extra $80 per pair? Or “out there” denim that’s cheaper than Margiela’s?

Amazing news for everyone’s legs and asses!

Paige Denim, makers of the only jeans I actually spend my money on, is opening its own boutique in New York!

Yes, they’re already available at Bloomingdale’s, but any time we can avoid a major avenue / department store, we’re happy.

The new Paige boutique will be at 869 Washington, near the Scoops, making it an incredibly convenient stop if you’re into brunching then shopping in Meatpacking on Sundays starting, November 24th.

Here’s to hoping they include the petite line..

Surprisingly, we loved everything that came down the Balmain runway for this Fall. And ever since, boldly colored animal prints have been weighing on our minds.

So you can imagine our lust when we came across these skinny red and black zebra jeans from Tripp NYC.

They ride the line between punk and sex appeal - a totally wearable jean with just enough edge that says, “We can totally kick your ass.”

We usually stay away from various printed jeans due to their propensity to make legs look like polka-dotted sausages, but these Tripp babies are dark enough to pass the flatter test, not to mention all those diagonal lines might actually be slimming. The best part? They’re only $46!

Cool, original, wearable jeans for under $50 - need we say more?

—HAYLEY PHELAN

We love Alexander Wang and everything he sends down the runway (which is why I wound up with a few too many t-shirts ripped at the waist) but something in his Spring 08 show gave us pause. It wasn’t the ripped jean shorts, or even the midriff baring tops (obviously) - the thing that really got us were the boyfriend jeans.

We weren’t really sure what to do with them. Are they cool? Are they ugly? Are they wearable?

We thought we could tuck them away in the Spring 08 archives but it turns out that the same slouchy, man-ish pants are all over the Fall runways, though with more of a Katherine Hepburn silhouette that jeans just can’t muster.

In theory, we like the boyfriend jean. We think they have a certain carefree, casual cool to them, and they’re probably insanely comfortable. We have to say, it might be nice to wear pants that you don’t have to hop, shimmy or inhale deeply to get into.

And yet, we could imagine them transforming us into a squat, messy-looking faux-pas. (And do we even have to get into the saggy ass factor?) Then there’s the issue of what to wear on top - a loose shirt fits the mood but threatens to make you look a good few sizes larger than you are, while a tight top doesn’t quite fit the look. Basically, we’re afraid they could make us look like our third-grade lunch lady.

Fashionista’s really quite divided on the issue - Britt and Audrey are yay; Natalie, Kyle and I say nay. So we want to know - would you wear boyfriend jeans? And if so, how?

—HAYLEY PHELAN

J Brand, the jeans often worn by Claudia Schiffer, Kate Moss and Cindy Crawford, is launching a new denim line for those of us who don’t make a living from being super thin and super tall.

The line, J Brand Blue Label will consist of three styles - The Scarlett (low-rise with a cigarette or boot), The Catherine (mid-rise with a cigarette or boot), and The Monroe (mid-rise that fits looser in the hips and thighs).

The jeans will have a more generous cut in the leg and contoured waistbands to fit curvier girls. Each pair is between $158 and $178, and will roll out completely by August after an exclusive launch at Bloomingdale’s this July.

So that makes: J Brand Blue Label, for girls who aren’t stick thing, Paige Denim Petite for MK+A-sized girls, James Jeans for those looking to draw attention to their ass - is everyone that much closer to being able to find the perfect jeans?

Did hell just freeze over?

A curious phenomenon is sweeping the streets of New York, and we’re dying to know if you’ve seen it elsewhere:

Girls strapping their gladiator sandals over their skinny jeans.

It can look clumsy if you don’t have the right proportions for it (hint: if your legs are quite short, turn away from the screen), but there’s something intriguing about turning gladiator straps into a kind of accessory themselves, and it also stretches the shoes past their summer use into Spring and Fall.

But is this look just really silly and best seen on a Vice Magazine “Don’t”?

Or does it actually have real fashion potential?

It’s all happening:

Starting next week, Ruffian takes over the back room at Earnest Sewn’s store in the Meatpacking District, hyping their insane ‘08 line (needlepoint graffiti cocktail dresses, skinny denim suits) and collaborating with artist Anne Koch on a new visual installation.

The space and the clothes are based on the Boarding-School-Rebel theme, with scribbled chiffon, shredded silk, and teeny black neckties all echoing the idea.

To celebrate, the Ruffian boys are throwing a party at Earnest Sewn on May 27 -

No word yet on whether muse Agyness Deyn will make it over.

Fashion junkies around the city had one big question after reading Emily Nussbaum’s Sex and the City article in New York this week:

Who was the crazy denim publicist who stalked SJP through the West Village to hand her a pair of really cute jeans?

We had our suspicions, and now they’re confirmed:

The Blue Jean Baby was Misty Twigg, the senior publicist for MiH Jeans, which are actually our favorite ones ever.

Just as Misty told SJP, four times, you can buy them at Intermix.

Giggle giggle giggle.

With all kinds of denim still saturating the market, it’s clear that Levi’s is trying really hard to make sure they stay on top.

First they paid for a massive product-placement deal with Project Runway, sponsoring not just a challenge but also a contest where Tim Gunn and Nina Garcia judged Levi’s designs from fashion students and devotees of Christian Siriano.

Now we hear the brand is headed to South by Southwest, the Austin music festival, for a much cooler partnership with the Paris brand Surface 2 Air.

Beloved by Cathy Horyn and Karl Lagerfeld, the streetwear brand will zoom to Texas to help make denim a little more exciting for the I’ve-seen-everything-cool-and-I’m-cooler crowd.

Will the high fashion jeans be better than the bands?

Well, let’s put it this way: indie rockers, like models, usually have an expiration date, but a pair of jeans that actually fits you is forever.

Shopping trips, no matter the goal, inevitably turn into another leg of my neverending quest for the perfect pair of jeans.

My biggest denim issue has always been length - it seems like every pair is made for the Elle McPhersons of the world, while I hover just above the 5’0” mark. Oh, just get them hemmed, you say? Well, that wouldn’t be such a pain if it didn’t:

1. Automatically add $25 to the pair of already way-too-expensive pants.

2. Put my purchase at risk of butchery (I once had a pair of very expensive jeans ruined by someone who took them up just 1 inch too high - yes, that’s all it takes.)

3. Make me feel like life is so incredibly unfair for all the short people, unless you’re an Olsen.

But after an unusually successful department store trip this past MLK day, consider me satisfied (at least for now.)

I finally got around to trying out the petite line from Paige Jeans (owned by Fred Kayne, father to Jenni), and I have to say, they’re amazing. Not only are they subtly flattering (which is really all we want from jeans), but the second I slid them on - and could feel only the floor beneath my feet - I knew I was going to walk out of a store with wear-ready jeans for the first time ever.

Now if I could only convince shoe designers that 5.5 is a worthwhile size to include in their normal lines, I’d be all set.

This weekend, at the nameless downtown boutique where I slave a couple days a week, I was bombarded with the question, “Are skinny jeans over?”

Our trend-obsessed buyers might have gone overboard on the wideleg trend, and they might have forgotten which season we’re in. More than one confused shopper wondered how they were supposed to tuck the massive flares into their winter boots.

I understand their frustration - while I treasure my high-waisted widelegs, and rocked them with massive platforms all summer/fall, I’ve found them impossible to transition into winter since I detest boots under jeans.

When skinny jeans hit the states, shoppers groaned that they were too unflattering to have any real staying power. But their versatility has made them more than a passing trend, leaving a gap in the market for novelty denim ideas.

Meanwhile, plenty of women seem to stick to the one style they feel works for them, buying multiple pairs of what looks and feels perfect instead of jumping onto the current denim bandwagon. It’s not exactly the most exciting shopping method, but maybe looking good does sometimes trump looking “on trend”.

Are you still wearing your skinnies? Or have you fully embraced the trendiest denim out there?

One of our peeves is a fashion ad with no clothes, and the latest culprit is Joe’s Jeans.

Their posters have papered Canal Street to the West Village, but is there a single pair of pants? No. Instead it’s just a half-naked model scaling a wall.

The ads don’t exactly make us want to buy a pair of jeans for ourselves - but we do want to buy some for the model, so at least she’ll cover up.

We’re also a little mystified by the strategy used in this ad -

Shouldn’t you walk away from a campaign with at least a vague idea of the product it’s pitching?

Not that we’re against huge photos of undressed girls… they’re just a little boring…

We interrupt our usual stream of models and magazines to bring you something real:

This morning, I rolled out of bed, reached for my wide leg Saltworks magnolia jeans, and almost couldn’t button them.

Excuse me?

I ran through a list in my mind of what could have caused it. A chocolate chip cookie instead of dinner? Relentlessly chugging soy milk at my desk? Skipping Pilates for another party?

“It happens to everyone,” says Kelley Culp, a stylist and fashion editor who - disclaimer - is also a colleague at my other home base, Page Six Magazine. “In fact, the only people I haven’t seen it happen to are celebrities, but that’s because if pants don’t fit them, they’ll just say ‘Oh, I don’t like these, I won’t wear them’ before they even try them on at a shoot.”

Which is totally what I should have said to my closet this morning. Instead, I took down Kelley’s tips for how to disguise the issue:

“You don’t have to throw out your jeans,” she says, “Because everyone’s body fluctuates, and the weird thing is, sometimes your stomach doesn’t look so great but your butt looks amazing. So my biggest trick is to get a blousy shirt - not a tunic that covers up your butt, but just something with more volume that hits at your hip - and pull a cropped jacket over it. Then add a lot of necklaces and draw all of your attention up to your face and down to your butt. Under no circumstances should you throw a big cardigan over the problem, because then you can tell.”

Good to know. Thank you Kelley.

And now, back to the dressing room.

We never got an American Girl as a child (unless you count the Marilyn Monroe by Warhol poster from Hanukkah ‘95).

Still, we have half fond and half jealous memories of Felicity, Kirsten, and Samantha, the historical dolls whose every adventure, friendship, and fashion accessory were relentlessly chronicled and sold by the
Pleasant Company. Felicity in particular was huge with our friends, probably because her Colonial time period allowed her the most extravagant dresses and also, she looked a bit like Lindsay Lohan in The Parent Trap.

There was just one issue - with the exception of a few frilly gowns, the clothes were anything but great for these dolls. We could hole up for hours dressing Barbie in trash bag couture and wrap-dresses invented
from our mother’s old scarves. But the American Girls? Oh, they needed a Little Fashion House on the Prairie.

This season, things are changing. The company just introduced two new dolls named Julie and Ivy who are both from the ’70s (okay, Felicity was from the 1770s, but that doesn’t count). Along with Title IX and Nixon, the girls are also
learning about caftans, bell bottoms, and mood rings.

The cynical part of Fashionista worries this is all American Girl needs to start an overpriced denim line to go with their overpriced dolls.

The rest of us thinks if girls start thinking tunics and disco dresses are cuter than Juicy Couture and the Cheetah Girls, this is a very good step.

It’s probably uncool to watch the CFDA / Vogue Fashion Fund as if it were a horse race, but let’s be real - there’s no aloofness woven into our Luella dress, just some earnest “omigosh” at the latest winner:

It’s eco-denim designer Rogan Gregory, who beat the running favorite Phillip Lim to the $200,000 prize.

Gregory has a store in Tribeca and jeans that look like you wore them for five years of your life - straight. He only works with fair trade materials, and uses energy efficient techniques when making his clothes. Rogan claims Heath Ledger and Helena Christensen as major fans, and Bono as a spokesman - his wife, Ali Hewson, has another line with Gregory called Edun, which promotes environmental living and flowy sun dresses.

But what gave Rogan the edge over lines like Marchesa, Vena Cava, and Erin Fetherston?

Only Anna can tell for sure, but we bet the company’s environmental edicts had a large part to do with the decision - after all, this is the year when Barneys decorates their windows with recycled paper, and even the Top Model bus is a hybrid.

Phillip Lim won a $50,000 second-place prize from the fund, along with jewelry designer Philip Craingi.